In front of their television screens, LeBron James, Anthony Davis and their Los Angeles Lakers teammates had to go through all the emotions. Dependent on the results of Dallas and Portland to hope to avoid dams and go directly to the play-offs, the reigning champions received a nice boost from the Phoenix Suns, Thursday winners of the Trail Blazers in Arizona (118-117). But it was hard ! The last minutes were as choppy as they were stifling, with a very large part of the game being played on free throws in the last moments.
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Dario Saric, the Croatian interior of the Suns, had only managed one in four obtained at the start of the last minute, leaving hope in Portland (in the lead 115-114 at this point). But after a stupid ball loss from Phoenix, on a double dribble from Devin Booker, Robert Covington had in turn trembled, for Portland, from the throwing line (2 missed for a score of 117-116 in favor of the Blazers).
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On the following action, obtaining a fault not necessarily obvious but validated after video challenge, Booker did not crack, encouraged by the “MVP, MVP, MVP” of the public of the Phoenix Suns Arena. He scored his two shots at 2”4 from the final siren to give the victory to his team, CJ McCollum not even being able to trigger the last-ditch shot for Portland in time. It allows the Suns to keep hope of recovering first place in the Western Conference (1 victory behind the Utah Jazz and two matches to be played).
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The Lakers have their destiny in hand
But the most important consequence of this match is at the level of the places of 5th to 7th. Success would have assured Portland its direct ticket to the play-offs (5th or 6th). The Lakers (current 7th) would then have had only one chance to hope to avoid the dams: by winning their two remaining matches (in Indiana then New Orleans) and seeing Dallas lose once (against Toronto or Minnesota).
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The defending champions now have an additional possibility if Portland stumbles against the Denver Nuggets (Sunday), who still play third in the Western Conference. The Trail Blazers, who will be at home this time around, will need a Damian Lillard – CJ McCollum duo as lively as Thursday night, the former compiling 41 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists while the latter scored 27. (with a 5 of 9 at three points), but could not save his own at the buzzer. Although criticized by some, including LeBron James recently, the play-in format for teams ranked 7th to 10th in each conference ensures a thrilling end to the regular season as rarely seen in the NBA.
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